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Originally Posted by pstinard  So maybe the abstract that I posted is all that has been published  . According to the abstract, there were: 54 dog owners with a total of 86 dogs and 5 cats owners with 8 cats.
The owners provided information on the medical history of their pets. In a standardized questionnaire, these pet owners were asked to state their reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet and to provide a detailed description of their pet's diet.
Subsequently, the nutritional requirements were calculated for sixty-six adult dogs (11% lacto -ovo-vegetarian, 47% lacto-vegetarian, 29% vegan, and 13% semivegetarian), 8 vegan puppies from a single litter, and for all 8 cats.
For what it's worth, it looks like there were 86 dogs and 8 cats. They collected data on 66 adult dogs, 8 vegan puppies, and all 8 cats. So perhaps the 8 animals you are referring to were the 8 vegan puppies that were half the normal weight for their age. At any, it's still a small population size. Unfortunately, this seems to be one of the few publications on the effects of a vegetarian diet on dogs.
The Japanese study that I cited earlier () studied the effect of feeding plant vs. animal protein to sports dogs. They concluded that to prevent "sports anemia," it's best to feed animal protein to the sporting dogs during the active part of their life, and vegetable protein after they have retired. |
Yeah, the results etc are similar to what I found but I had to use a German translation thingy from Google which, to be fair, is not the best. I think that explains the discrepancy in the sample size. However, as talented as I may be in many things, the German language is not among my skill set!
Still, a relatively small sample size to assume generalizations. One author of this study, E. Kienzle, is very prominent in zoology and has written many research articles re: fiber in foods and how to make the most of supplements and the pros and cons of commercial pet foods versus homemade etc. I don't know if that would be of any interest to you? I thought I'd mention it since I found it interesting that, of the 144 articles which were available, none were the one we were seeking! However, I learned a lot just from scanning this authors available published works! So, if you're interested, have a look. If you can't find something, let me know and I'll try to help?
Also, if anyone is interested in rhino/tapir feces consistency on the basis of B12 deficiency and iron supplements, please do let me know! These published works are care of E. Kienzle! lol